A friend of mine is considering building a Pygmy kayak, or having me build one for him, and he asked "how much does it cost to build a Pygmy kayak?" He was guessing about $2,000 for the completed kayak including all the consumables, and that turns out to be a great guess. I worked up an Excel workbook of the costs that I could think of. It is based off of all the consumables I've used on this and previous boats: This assumes that you would want the hatch & bulkhead kit, and the custom deck perimeter lines with soft webbing padeyes similar to what I install on my boats. It does not include any tool costs because you may or may not already have many of them. I think that this amount is a realistic estimate of what a completed Pygmy solo kayak would cost. If you were to pay a professional to build it for you then you'd probably have to at least double it or more. This is based on the 2015 price of a Borealis kit; your kit may cost more or less. In the...

The last job today on my Pygmy Borealis XL kayak build was to trim the excess fiberglass from this morning's step. I waited several hours (it's only mid-50's today and took longer to get to the "green stage") and it trimmed quite easily. I was happy to see that the trimming with a new Exacto blade didn't seem to leave a white line. I've had a white line that never disappeared happen in the past, but this looks good. Tomorrow I'll sand along the cut edge to blend it in with the sides, and then add the first filler coat. Aloha!